I've been feeling stale in terms of creativity for a while. Hitachinaka is a pleasant place to live; it's very orderly (if you discount the statistics of driving accidents), full of nice homes and nice families and nice grocery stores and trains that run pretty much always on time. It's a lot like suburban Ohio, when you get down to it, which is good for my peace of mind but horribly chafing on my inspiration. What I liked about Taipei was that there was always something going on around me that could confuse or interest me. There were so many people to watch, so many lives being lived and events occurring at the same time. Utter chaos, like a game-show where a contestant is put in a box and dollar bills are blown around for them to catch; anything you grab is more than you had before. Anything I grab out of the air in a city like Tokyo or Taipei is a new brilliant creative idea waiting to be dissected into a whole story. I don't feel that in Hitachinaka. I feel pe...